Carnival
by Flaw's Revenge
Summary: The sisters go to a carnival to take care of a demon on Chris's request...or something like that. One-shot.


Wow, so...it's been a while. This site has changed quite a bit in the meantime.

Anyway, I'm still alive, and I had started this a while ago, trying to break out of my block, and now it's finished so I thought maybe some of you would like to take a look. No spoilers for anything really, set before the sisters know who Chris is, and not connected to my other Charmed stories--basically just a day in the life...at a carnival. :-)

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

* * *

"Hey, so I was wondering if you had any plans for this weekend, because I thought maybe we could—"

Piper cut him off with a wave of her hand and a resounding, "No, Chris, I am not demon hunting this weekend. I have plans. The whole family has plans. So just, take a time out or something."

There was silence behind her, and she kept writing, working on the books at P3 and happy for a moment's peace, because with her life, she knew it was bound to be broken soon.

She got to the end of the page and sat down her pen to turn to the next one, when she realized that silence meant no footsteps moving off.

She sighed and chanced a quick glance over her shoulder and saw him there, just standing there.

"What?" she asked.

He opened his mouth, and she imagined reasons and excuses pouring out, and she saw herself caving and giving up her free time and her plans.

"No, nevermind. I'm sorry I asked."

She turned the page and brought the pen up again, and this time there were footsteps, and the sound of something hitting the inside of the trash can before the door to the back room opened and closed again.

She got through only three lines of finances before curiosity got the best of her. It had sounded like paper, whatever had hit the bottom. Maybe he'd taken some notes on a demon? But no, then he wouldn't have thrown it away where anybody could just walk by and see, even if it was in the trash can.

She sighed again, threw the pen down and went over to investigate. Inside was brightly colored glossy paper—a pamphlet. She reached down and pulled it out, saw it was an advertisement for a carnival that weekend.

Were there killer clowns or something? Children in danger? That thought alone was enough to make her start to feel guilty.

"Chris?" she called, but there was no answer.

She moved to the doorway and knocked, but still no response. Feeling a little ashamed at herself, she opened the door and peeked inside, but no Chris. He'd doubtless orbed out somewhere, too busy on his countless missions to stay put for long.

She looked down at the pamphlet again. There went her plans, and her sisters' plans. There were bound to be too many people there to just let this one go.

* * *

They got to the carnival early, before the crowds had really started to form—just other early risers here and there, watching the stands open up, the flashing lights starting to come on.

They wandered the fair all day, armed with the previous night's research on clowns and carnies, on demons that targeted children and families, on Ferris wheels of doom, on anything short of calling Chris and just asking him.

"Piper? Can we please just call him and get this over with? My feet are killing me." Phoebe complained from behind her as they turned a corner and saw a stand advertising fried pickles and chocolate covered bacon.

"Well, you probably shouldn't have worn those ridiculous shoes, then," Paige said, and Piper smirked where neither of them would see.

"Well, I didn't think we would spend all day here, wandering aimlessly, or I wouldn't have. Can we just ask him already, Piper? I've got a date that was supposed to start half an hour ago and I—"

"There he is!"

Piper turned to look where Paige was indicating, and sure enough, there he was, standing in front of a stand selling funnel cakes and ice cream.

Demonic dessert? Well, she had heard of stranger things. They headed over to him, and she revised her thinking. He wasn't casing the place out, he was…eating a funnel cake?

"Chris?" she asked when they had come up behind him.

He turned around smiling, but it died when he saw them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I think I should be asking you that," Piper said.

He shrugged and looked down at the plate of powdered sugar-coated fried dough in front of him, as though it were obvious.

"Where's the demon?" she asked, lowering her voice on the last word, but there was so much hustle and bustle around them that no one would have noticed even if she'd shouted it.

"What are you talking about? No one called me about a demon."

"Oh yeah?" Phoebe said, holding up the pamphlet. "Then what's this about?"

He looked at the pamphlet and looked at Piper. "It's a pamphlet for this fair," he said.

The girls stood silently for a while, then Paige said slowly, "So there's nothing going on here? Just a fair."

Chris shrugged. "I always thought those rigged games were kind of evil."

Paige smiled. "Cool," she said, and grabbed Phoebe's arm and away they went.

Piper stayed behind, feeling pretty embarrassed.

"Want some funnel cake?" Chris said, holding the plate out towards her.

"You were inviting me to the fair?" She asked, and gave a bark of laughter. "No way."

He shrugged again, and little bits of powdered sugar fell off the plate like snowflakes.

"My mom took me once, when I was little," he said. "We had a good time. I thought it might be fun."

"Fun? You wanted to have fun?"

He pulled the funnel cake back towards him, gave a little shrug and studied the sugar instead of looking at her.

"Yeah, stupid, huh? I better get back to work." He looked around him a little until he found what he was looking for, and without another word, tossed the funnel cake in the trash and started walking to the exit.

Piper stood frozen in shock for a single moment, and when she finally got her feet moving to go after him, he'd already disappeared into the crowd.


End file.
